Being the blog of Charles Stross, author.

Typo hunt: HALTING STATE

You know how jet-lagged I was? I mistook the page proofs for the paperback edition of HALTING STATE for the page proofs of the hardcover of SATURNS CHILDREN.

So.

If you've read HALTING STATE in hardcover (US hardcover only, please) and spotted a typo or blooper, please post in the comment thread below this entry. (It'd help if you could tell me what page the typo is on, and provide some textual context — e.g. three to five words, verbatim, as printed, including the typo — so I can search for and find it. I need to get any corrections back to production by the 6th of March, so there's a week to get them to me.)

Well, I've only read the UK version (finished it last week, really enjoyed it), however Amazon book search tells be that on p246 of the US version you refer to Burt's Bar (an SFWA hangout?), whereas any fule kno it's Bert's Bar.

Also, my girlfriend would take exception to the 'excellent pies' reputation, unless the management is going to have changed again by the time we've reached that particular future.

P 54, first line "Statement by Mr. W. Richardson, March 20, 2016 (Raw Transcript)" It's supposed to be 2018 correct? That is what the blurb on the inside cover says at any rate, and I think that's confirmed at other points in the story.

p. 120, 5 lines down:
"...wee sleekit, couring, timorous beastie,...."
"couring" should probably be "cowering", "cow'rin", or "cow'ring"
The first line of the Robert Burns poem To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough, reads
"Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,"
There's a copy of the poem athttp://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml

p. 179, 9 lines down, at the beginning of the line:
"If you can you do that, we can go and pay them a visit right now."
should be
"If you can do that, we can go and pay them a visit right now."

p. 266, 14 lines up, counting the "***":
"Would you mind telling me what was that all about?"
I had to read that twice. As a Yank I'm more used to hearing,
"Would you mind telling me what that was all about?"
Not sure what Scottish or UK phrasing is.

p185 para2 line10: all you friends are absent -> all your friends are absent

p202 para1 line5: built like an old public-school rugby squad quarterback -> rugby squad front row forward(?) Quarterback is not a rugby position (halfback a.k.a flyhalf & fullback are, but the bigger burly positions are in the front row; prop or hooker).

US version, page 154:
So Hayek run the bank and sell safety deposit storage.
It seems like this should read:
So Hayek runs the bank and sells safety deposit storage.
It depends on whether you're treating Hayek as Them or It, your call.

Steve @#11, this is a US/UK dialect difference. (IIRC, UK common usage is to pluralize companies: US is to singularize them, but it's only a tendency in each case and I can never keep them straight. Both are valid, anyway.)

Halting State seems to have just appeared in Australia (TPB) mere days after my Amazon UK order delivered it to my doorstep. It's the same UK edition here, although at roughly GBP16.50, 50% over the UK cover price. So personally importing as part of a larger book order is extremely competitive. Given the "book miles" involved, publishers are still creaming off a lot from the Australian market.